BMC failed to curb illegal pandals: Court

The Bombay high court on Thursday observed that though the Constitution of India has given the right to worship to every citizen of this country, it did not mean anyone could do his religious practice anywhere and any time.

A division bench of Justice Abhay Oka and Justice A.A. Sayed is dictating the final order on the dozens of PIL filed by various activists and NGOs regarding noise pollution during festivals. Since 2014, the high court has been giving various interim orders to curb the noise pollution during festival seasons and also on erecting pandals during Ganesh and Navratri festivals.

Earlier, the court had rapped the state government for poor implementation of noise pollution rules in the state.

However, on Thursday, the court said that the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has also failed to restrict illegal pandals on the street. “According to the BMC and Municipal Act, no one can alter or repair roads without the permission of the municipal commissioner, but in the festival season, many are erecting pandals on streets without taking permission,” the court stated.

Clean and well-maintained roads are the fundamental rights of the citizen but they don’t even get space to walk on the street. The court also criticised the BMC’s policy under which permission has been granted to erect pandals on the street. The court said this policy was made without application of mind.

The court also observed that after taking permissions from the BMC to erect a pandal, the mandals and organisations then set up banners and illegal hoardings around the pandal and use loudspeakers.

“Once they obtain the BMC’s permission, the mandals do not think it’s necessary to seek the same for banners and loudspeakers. They forget permission was granted only to erect pandals, and if they want to play loudspeakers and set up banners they have to seek permission for the same from the other authorities concerned,” the court stated.

The court also said that it had given order to set up a grievance mechanism for people to file their complaints but that order also was not fully complied by the municipal corporation, the court observed. The dictation of the order will conclude on Friday.

Festival time Earlier, the court had rapped the state government for poor implementation of noise pollution rules in the state. The court also criticised the BMC’s policy under which permission had been granted to erect pandals on the street. The court said this policy was made without application of mind. The court said its order to set up a grievance cell was not heeded.

BMC had issued notices to 350 Ganesh mandals last year The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) last year had sent notices to around 350 Ganesh mandals which had constructed their pandals without the requisite permissions from the civic body and the traffic police, it was revealed.

The notices were issued for violating the high court’s directives on erecting pandals during Ganeshotsav. Following HC directives, the BMC, last year, had prepared a policy for the erection of temporary structures on roads for festivals and ceremonies.

In 2015, before the start of the Ganeshotsav, the civic body had received 2,126 pandal applications of which it had approved 976 and rejected 473. The remaining 709 applications were kept pending due to technical difficulties.

Several big Ganesh mandals have been found to be violating civic rules before. The BMC last year had slapped a fine of Rs 3.36 lakh on the Lalbaugcha Raja Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav Mandal for creating potholes on footpaths and roads. The mandal also had not paid the earlier arrears of about Rs 35 lakh.

The BMC had found only one pandal at Slater Road near Grant Road which has been erected without permission. In Thane, out of the 350 pandals which were erected, 140 were found to be constructed without permission.

Apart from erecting pandals, the Ganesh mandals have been found damaging the roads. The F South Ward office last year had slapped a fine of `3.36 lakh on Lalbaugcha Raja for digging 168 holes on the road and pavements to erect a pandal for devotees’ queue. For each pothole, Rs 2,000 were charged by the BMC.

The arrears for the mandal have been pending since several years. In 2012, the civic body had slapped a fine of Rs 23.56 lakh on the mandal for digging 953 holes on the road to erect a bridge to the pandal for devotees’ queue. The BMC then asked the mandal to pay a fee of `5.6 lakh for erecting temporary ramp and pandal for devotees in 2013.